Why Have College Tuition Costs Changed So Much in the U.S.?

Links between higher education and American government go back more than 150 years. Believing that an educated populace benefits the nation, Congress passed a series of laws to fund public universities at low to no cost to students. 

Today, college is seen by many as essential and, according to U.S. News & World Report, the cost of tuition for a four-year college ranges from $11,171 (in-state public) to $41,411 (private). Even though the government provides more than $150 billion in grants, loans and work-study money each year, according to the Lumina Foundation, one in six adults has student loan debt that averages more than $30,000.

What got us here exactly? Read on to learn about the fascinating history of how the cost of college tuition in America has drastically changed since the very first public university opened in the late 1700s.

The first public college, the University of North Carolina, opened in 1795. At the time, only about 2 percent of (mostly wealthy) young men attended college. 

Since few careers required formal schooling, the benefit was merely prestige, and even though private philanthropy subsidized tuition costs, few could afford the loss of wages that attendance would require. 

In the 1830s, higher education opened to the working class at “manual labor colleges.” These institutions, such as the pictured Oneida Institute, offered students the option to work at the school in exchange for an education. 

A changing society eventually saw more than 200 new degree-granting institutions in the 19th century, but many struggled financially and ultimately closed.

In 1862, the Morrill Act provided each state and territory with 30,000 acres of federal land per Congressional representative to establish a “land grant” university. This land could be used as a location for the school or sold to provide funds. 

States without sufficient land within their borders received federal land in other states. The act required that these schools teach agriculture, mechanic arts, military tactics and classical studies to the working classes. With this federal subsidy, states were able to provide a public college education with little or no tuition.

With the rise of commercial agriculture came the awareness that the U.S. needed to be globally competitive. The Hatch Act of 1887 provided federal funds for states to establish “agriculture experimental stations.” These stations were most often affiliated with the land-grant state schools and provided the ability to conduct a broad range of research in all aspects of agriculture, both local and national, while subsidizing a public education. 

In 2019, more than $63.8 million was appropriated for related programs at 58 colleges and universities. In 2020, 59 schools received appropriations totaling more than $195 million.